Author: chiara-canzi

A radiant Dede Smith gladly subjected herself to a whirlwind of affectionate embraces and congratulatory handshakes last Tuesday night at Vivace Restaurant on Ivy Road, moments after the final vote tally revealed she had won one of the three open seats on Charlottesville’s City Council.

MORE ELECTIONS COVERAGE: Will the Albemarle Board of Supervisors stay 4-2? Ask Scottsville’s Chris Dumler. Councilors-elect Satyendra Huja and Kathy Galvin on the future of Charlottesville. Llezelle Dugger brings a new order to the court. The price of election: A 2011 campaign fundraising map

Smith’s victory came as no surprise to the Democratic party leadership, which worked hard during the campaign to counter the public’s perception that the winning ticket of Smith, incumbent Satyendra Huja and Kathy Galvin was anything but unified. Planning and design-focused heavy hitters Huja and Galvin got the most votes, 4,608 and 4,601 respectively, but Smith finished a close third with 4,547 votes.

Now that Smith is officially a City Councilor, can her dredge-first agenda, which distances her from both Huja and Galvin, change the status quo on Council? Does Smith, who is known as a fighter, have the ability to turn into a consensus builder?

A city resident for over 30 years, it’s not the first time Smith, now 56, has had a leadership role in the community. As School Board chair, she presided over what was perhaps the school system’s biggest fiasco. Scottie Griffin, the city’s first African-American school superintendent, was brought in to make dramatic changes at a moment when the state was considering taking over the district’s budget for poor performance. Griffin arrived with big ideas but soon became embroiled in a racially charged power struggle that divided the district and eventually ended in her resignation only 10 months after she was hired. Smith stood by Griffin throughout the crisis and she still stands by that decision.

“We had a contract with the superintendent,” she said. “I think it would have been a lack of leadership on my part and on the School Board’s part to have done what we needed to do without trying to work with her.”

From this and other contentious situations, Smith said she has learned to take criticism. “I am not afraid,” she said. “I think it’s actually one of my strengths that I’m willing to get in the middle of very complex issues when I feel they are really important.”

Smith got a taste of the complexity of the city’s race relations landscape during the Scottie Griffin fight and was widely criticized for how she handled her part. When the city endorsed the creation of the Dialogue on Race as a way to find plausible solutions to racial tensions in the city, Smith wasn’t initially convinced.

“I was pretty skeptical when it started because I’ve seen it happen many times,” she said. “The Dialogue on Race has broken the mold and it really established itself as a valuable tool to discuss race.” Smith said that especially because there will be no African-American representation on Council for the first time in years, the Dialogue on Race will become even more crucial. “It’s evolving and that’s what’s important,” she said.

Dede Smith (left), pictured here with outgoing Councilor Holly Edwards, has been a vocal supporter of a dredge-first approach to the community water supply plan. In the event of a new vote, Smith hopes the Council’s outcome will be different. “The first time I objected to it, it was a completely different plan, and it’s just changed and morphed as it needed to morph…I will continue to advocate for what I believe is the best thing for the city,” she said.

In her role as director of the Ivy Creek Foundation for 14 years and as a member of Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, Smith has been a vocal and very public voice in the community water supply debate. She has tried, during her campaign, to offer a more varied political agenda, emphasizing a renewed focus on alternative transportation, the protection of natural resources and affordable housing issues. Yet, the water supply debate has followed her throughout the campaign, and there’s a good chance it will take center stage once again with the new Council.

“I don’t think we know yet what decisions will be left to make,” said Smith. Asked whether she would push for a new vote on the 2006 community water supply plan, Smith said she would if the opportunity presented itself, “I would hope we would reconsider,” she said. “The first time I objected to it, it was a completely different plan, and it’s just changed and morphed as it needed to morph. So I don’t see any reason why, should the opportunity come up or new information come up. I will continue to advocate for what I believe is the best thing for the city.”

If it does come to a vote, Smith, who has vocally opposed the construction of the new earthen dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, will have the backing of the people who voted her into office. Former opponent and Independent candidate Bob Fenwick, who had hoped to win a seat on Council along with Smith to create a new majority that would review and challenge the current water plan’s vote, said he would look for her to resuscitate the issue.

“Dede is a fighter. She can make a good case,” he said. “She has the pulpit now.”

Smith, who says she has “thick skin,” has worked hard to shake the one-issue candidate label that stuck with her throughout the campaign. The priorities for her Council tenure won’t lie far from her core interests, i.e. protecting natural resources and planning for responsible growth, but she believes she will be able to integrate that platform with larger issues the city government will face.

“If I have one dream, it’s really to see alternative transportation to cars become a viable option in this city,” she said.

On the redevelopment of the city’s public housing sites, another racially charged and challenging issue, Smith said she is doing her homework.

“I am learning as much as I can,” she said. She added that it will be vital to get direct buy-in from the people whose lives will be affected by the decisions involved in redevelopment.

“I think that’s where we fall down sometimes,” she said. “If I learned anything on the School Board it is that I cannot possibly understand what it is like to be in the shoes I have never worn.”

Managing to win a seat on a Council many say won’t be much different than the current one isn’t likely to satisfy Smith’s ambition. How much her relentless attitude can change the conversation moving forward remains to be seen.

 

Kathy Galvin: The Architect
Galvin ran a successful City Council campaign on the message of intelligent design, an idea she promoted through her slogan “Greener, Smarter, Stronger by Design.” She believes that developing the city’s growth and entrance corridors appropriately and giving residents the ability to become self-sufficient will help narrow the “pervasive” income and wealth gaps that are present in the community.

“By Design means that the streets are gracious and elegant with bikes and pedestrians, that it is active with opportunity for both businesses and for residents so that the city is not so totally dependent on driving in new business, but people are actually living here to sustain them.”

“Density, which is a word that people are very concerned about, is not something that is an end in itself, but it’s a means to an end and that is to provide great transportation, provide great economic vitality, greater access to economic opportunity for everybody in the city.”

“We would do a disservice to the community and to the neighborhoods if we did not get them involved in a very big way with their future. The government is supposed to provide the tools and techniques to facilitate dialogue. The vision is a shared vision, we as a city need to make sure that we have the very best tools. It’s our responsibility to get this ball rolling.”

Satyendra Huja: The Planner
Huja, who was easily re-elected to City Council as the top vote getter, has worked with the city as its Director of Planning for more than 30 years. In his first term on City Council, Huja supported a neighborhood and housing revitalization initiative that included the approval of the first Single Room Occupancy (SRO) project on Preston Avenue and the redevelopment of public housing. He also championed a more bike friendly Charlottesville.

“I think what we need to do is to strengthen the alternative modes of transportation. More people will use it and won’t need to use cars as much. Second, we need to develop an interlink network of bikeways. If they are interlinked and safe, more people will ride it.”

“Another thing that is important for me is the issue of poverty. There are people in our community who need help. They need job training and need jobs so they can support themselves. A maybe too ambitious a goal, but I would love to see poverty eliminated in our community. People say it’s a pipe dream, but every dream has to start somewhere.”

“The city can help in the process, but people have to cooperate with us, businesses have to cooperate with us.”

The destruction of Vinegar Hill in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal and the displacement of the many African-American families who lived there have caused irreparable damage to race relations in Charlottesville.

Holly Edwards on race, politics and goats: an exit interview.

The apology that Vice Mayor Holly Edwards initiated, which she called “long overdue,” was unanimously approved by City Council last week in an effort to publicly acknowledge the mistakes of the past and begin the healing process. Now a proposal to make the Dialogue on Race a permanent institutional presence in local government is in the hands of City Hall’s administrators. Is funding a new government entity the way to end racial discrimination?

“I know that the Dialogue on Race is a city funded thing, but included participants from all over the area. I would love to see a regional human rights commission and one that includes the county and the city, because we are all one community,” said Councilor Kristin Szakos. 

Mayor Dave Norris believes that efforts to promote racial equality should have a permanent place in local government. “Given the fiscal realities of where we are now and given the fact that there are other resources right now that wouldn’t want to duplicate that, I am not sure that’s where we want to start,” he said.

In early 2009, City Council tasked then-Assistant City Manager Maurice Jones with forming discussion groups centered on discussing race relations in the city and more than 700 people from different backgrounds participated in the Dialogue on Race’s study circles. A product of one of the groups’ recommendations, the Charlottesville Commission on Human Rights, Diversity and Race Relations, whose draft proposal is still in its initial stages, is designed to investigate and report race discrimination in housing and employment, which the proposal states, is said to happen hundreds of times every year.

“We see the commission as a next step as the city works to develop an institutional response to further the mission of the Dialogue on Race and promote positive race relations and equity in Charlottesville,” said Walter Heinecke, a member of the dialogue’s policy action team.

The ultimate goal is for Charlottesville to become a national model for diversity and open the door for more enforcement of discriminatory practices. Heinecke said that the commission could be eligible to become the local branch of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“It’s a way of institutionalizing a commitment to racial and ethnic equality in town,” said Heinecke.

According to a draft proposal, the commission would be comprised of seven members appointed by Council, would be led by an executive director and would report to the City Manager. In terms of enforcement, Mayor Dave Norris said that Council will have to “have a good discussion about how broad the powers and authorities of this new commission would be.”

The commission’s annual operating budget is estimated to be similar to that of the Planning Commission, or $200,000, in addition to a starting investment of $300,000. In a time when government investments are scrupulously investigated, allocating a significant amount of money for a commission on race relations will have critics.

“Is racial equality budget neutral?” asks Heinecke. He thinks that so much has been lost in the African-American community as a result of the razing of Vinegar Hill that if an economist were to calculate the loss, it would amount to millions of dollars.

“When you think about the city’s response to that, we think that $200,000 a year isn’t an exorbitant amount to ask to contribute to the solutions of the problems that have arisen in the wake of significant racial discrimination and negative race relations over 100 years,” Heinecke said.

Although Norris said he believes efforts of this kind should have a permanent place in local government, “given the fiscal realities of where we are now and given the fact that there are other resources right now that wouldn’t want to duplicate that, I am not sure that’s where we want to start,” he said.

For Szakos, the proposal’s cost is “really daunting.”
“We are really in stagnant budget world and I think we have to look at some creative ways to fund it, but I certainly want to enter in that conversation,” she said.

The key to making the commission effective is political will power, said Heinecke, adding that it will have to be supported by both city councilors and the community as a whole to move forward.
 

Thanksgiving may be a time of transition for Occupy Charlottesville. The movement is debating whether to physically decamp from its current base in Lee Park for the winter, with the idea of coming back stronger and better organized in early spring.

Occupier Evan Knappenberger said the idea has been loosely discussed in the camp, and it’s something that will continue to be talked about at every general assembly until a consensus is reached.

Knappenberger isn’t afraid that leaving the camp will jeopardize the movement.
“It doesn’t mean that we are not going to be doing other things; we are still going to be out protesting, holding signs, doing marches, having parades,” said Knappenberger. “It doesn’t mean that we will be shutting down for the winter, absolutely not.”

Knappenberger added that a winter spent strategizing and effectively organizing should help the movement regroup and come back to a stronger position and perhaps in a different location.
“This is proof to the community that we are serious. It’s the proof to the media and the city that we are serious. It’s proof to us that we are serious and that we are able to do this and the next step is to do something long-term and really hardcore,” he said.
Brian Daly, director of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, confirmed that Knappenberger told him that the movement “expected to wind down peacefully” in the weeks leading to Thanksgiving.

The movement has been in “constant” contact with city police, and even asked for heavier patrolling at night when as one occupier said, the atmosphere gets “tense.”
According to Lt. Ronnie Roberts, public information officer with Charlottesville Police, aside from the three recent arrests at Lee Park, the protest has been peaceful.
“We haven’t had any problems,” he told
C-VILLE. “On the overall basis, they have been able to push their position, and from our stand point, we want to make sure that they have a safe environment to be there in the park.”

Occupier Shawna Murphy said getting some donated office space close to the Downtown Mall or Lee Park might help establish the movement’s headquarters and be a presence within the community.
“I think we can have a lot more occupiers in the park in the spring and good publicity and good will from the city and the community and we can work with the local government and empower ourselves, because this is our town, too,” she said.

Knappenberger is supportive of establishing headquarters with an office, but he is “wary” of the movement turning away from its grassroots origins.

“We don’t want to be like the Tea Party as a political entity, we do not want to raise lots of money, we do not want to have candidates, we do not want to have lobbyists,” he said.
The group’s permit to occupy Lee Park is currently renewed every three days and can be extended until Thanksgiving.

After that, Occupy Charlottesville will have to decide whether it can survive as an occupying movement.

 

 

Brooks Brodrick found out she was anorexic almost by chance.

“I was reading a textbook about another condition and breezed into the anorexia section and realized I did meet all the criteria for it,” said Brodrick, now a third year medical student at UVA.

Growing up as a dancer, Brodrick, now 32, was exposed to the disease, but she didn’t really analyze its consequences until it became her own struggle.

“Once I accepted the fact that I was anorexic, the implications of what that diagnosis meant really started to weigh on me,” said Brodrick.

Brodrick’s 10-year battle with anorexia forced her to take a leave of absence from medical school to focus on recovery, but she got treatment, received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology last March and is now ready to move on.

“It finally clicked that I was endangering my life,” she said. “Now, four years from in-patient and a year since I started to wake up, I guess you could say that I am really enjoying life again.”

When Brooks Brodrick realized the disease could take away her studies and her well-being, she fought back. “Now, four years from in-patient and a year since I started to wake up, I guess you could say I am really enjoying life,” she said.

Nationally, about 11 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder, and anorexia ranks among the top most common chronic illnesses among adolescents. Locally, of the 2,000 UVA students who reached out to UVA’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) in the past year, 91, or 4 percent, met the criteria for an eating disorder, according to Dr. Russ Federman, director of CAPS. Of those 91, 20 percent were bulimic and 12 percent anorexic.

Although these numbers are small in comparison with the total number of students on campus, Federman said that there may still be students who suffer from an eating disorder and don’t seek treatment and others who may have body image issues, but do not meet the medical criteria for the disease.

Brodrick now dedicates her scarce free time to raising awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), the largest organization of its kind in the world. For the past three years, she has organized the 5K NEDA Walk around the UVA campus to help survivors and sufferers find support in battling the disease. The walk also serves to link people struggling with eating disorders with the resources needed to survive.

Eating disorders have major effects on a person’s body, some even irreversible medical complications. According to studies, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder.

However, treatment is still expensive—to the tune of $30,000 a month for in-patient treatment—and in some cases, it is not covered by health insurance providers. Brodrick considers herself “lucky” to have had her family and clinical support system close for the duration of her recovery—that included in-patient and out-patient treatment, constant monitoring by a group of local physicians.

“My out-patient treatment in Charlottesville was $10,000 a year,” she said. “Without those resources, there aren’t a lot of free resources.”

Although UVA students have different options and resources, Kathleen MacDonald, a survivor, and the Education and Prevention Coordinator with the Gail R. Schoenbach F.R.E.E.D. Foundation, who attended NEDA’s walk and shared her own 16-year battle with an eating disorder, believes that more should be done on a national scale.

“Currently, we have a good many resources for people to get treatment, but there are not nearly enough and they are often disparate in their appropriateness for treating patients with eating disorders,” said MacDonald in an email. She added that many states do not have treatment centers and many patients are forced to go out of state, often paying out of pocket.

In order to begin changing the status quo, MacDonald said Congress should pass the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act, an effort to fund research about eating disorders and their treatment. In addition, “insurance companies and treatment providers need to recognize that eating disorders require very specific treatment,” thus creating new targeted treatment centers.

“Early intervention and treatment saves lives,” she said. “When people don’t get treatment, or don’t get the appropriate treatment or access to the length and levels of treatment they need, they often suffer for years on end and too many die as a result.”

Even when treatment is expensive, MacDonald believes any action is better than nothing.